Dubliners answer fans' requests with tour

February 27, 2011|HOWARD DUKES

Photo provided

Keith Roberts figures that longtime fans of the Young Dubliners will really enjoy their latest tour, which includes shows Thursday at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks and March 6 at the Midway Tavern in Mishawaka.

The hardworking band played Michiana in 2009 to promote its latest record, "Saints and Sinners."

Before that, the Young Dubliners released "With All Due Respect: The Irish Sessions."

Roberts, vocalist and acoustic guitarist, says that album was a tribute to Celtic tunes band members grew up hearing. The songs on the album, he says, provide listeners with some insight into the kind of songwriting and melodies that served as the building block for the Young Dubliners' sound.

Although the latest tour will include songs from "Saints and Sinners" and "With All Due Respect," Roberts says the set list will consist mainly of tunes from the Young Dubliners' archives.

That's what the fans wanted.

"What we had been doing is telling our fans that we've been so busy promoting the latest record, what do you want to hear?" Roberts says. "And what everybody wrote back is that they wanted to hear songs that we haven't played in 10 years or more."

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That request sent the band back to the vaults and to the woodshed to rehearse.

Roberts says he wasn't surprised by the request. Fans have their favorite songs, and they have songs that remind them of the good old days.

Fan preferences may be different from those of band members who have played some of these songs 150 to 180 times per year for many years. Besides, the band had a new album to promote, and it wanted to play tunes from that record as well.

"When you're playing the songs as often as we do, you just get bored with certain things and you end up rejecting the very songs that you have been asked to play the most," Roberts says.

It took awhile for the band members to find the balance between playing the songs that band members want to play while also playing the tunes that their fans want to hear.

Soon, however, the Young Dubliners found their stride.

"And it was really interesting to bring those song back because music is the soundtrack of your life," Roberts says. "Certain songs remind (people) of certain times in their lives."

Many longtime fans, he says, will appreciate hearing tracks from albums such as 2000's "Red."

"This show will be for the fans who have been with us the longest and may want to hear some of these old songs, and we are happy to (play) them," Roberts says.

Like Roberts, those fans were at different points in their lives when the Young Dubliners first released those old records.

Many of them now have families. Roberts has an 8-year-old son who occupies his time when the Young Dubliners aren't touring, writing new material or recording.

"I do everything that dads do," he says. "We go in the boat and play baseball and basketball and all of the other sports that I never heard of."

Roberts says his son also plays the sport known as football in Ireland.

"But he calls it soccer," he says, "even though I tell him that it's football."

In concert[square] The Young Dubliners perform at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Acorn Theater, 107 Generations Drive, Three Oaks. Tickets are $20. For more information, call 269-756-3879 or visit acorntheater.com.[square] The Young Dubliners perform at 5:30 p.m. March 6 at the Midway Tavern, 810 W. Fourth St., Mishawaka. Admission is $22 in advance and $25 at the door and includes corned beef and cabbage, served at 4:30 p.m. Proceeds benefit the Sonya Ansari Center for Autism at Logan. For more information, call 574-255-0458 or visit the website themidwaytavern.com.